Think you know Austin? Austin360 isn't so sure: "There should be more to being a true Austinite than just moving here because you had a great time at South by Southwest and thought it was like that here year round. You should have to know a few basic things about Austin before you can officially refer to it as your hometown." Take their "AQ" test and find out. Another mortgage company with employees in......

Thursday, June 28 artOpening Reception for Whitney Lee: Power Craft at Women and Their Work, 1710 Lavaca Street (6-8pm) artOpen House Work Viewing at Atelier 3-D, 2209 Pasadena Drive (4-10pm) artArtistic License: Josefina Guilisasti at The Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress Ave (Free, 6-8pm) booksAmanda Eyre Ward presents Forgive Me at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedyPat Dixon with Brendon Walsh at Cap City Comedy Club comedyParallelogramophonograph with special guests Look Cookie at ColdTowne Theater (8pm)......

Perhaps there is a reason Spain doesn't allow bullfighting under age 16. We have our own ideas for Barton Springs, including a water-slide and pool-bar with seats in the water. You know like at the resorts in Cancun? A lesser known symptom of Irritable Bowl Syndrome: shoplifting. Intel is making some announcements and just running the competition into the ground. Come on guys, having a gay affair isn't so bad. The Girl Scouts are......

Since unleashing the Peter Gabriel-like "Staring At The Sun" in 2003, TV On The Radio has done just about everything an indie band can hope for. They've released two lauded albums, made the major label jump, opened for the Pixies, recorded with David Bowie, and won the Shortlist Prize. And while The Arcade Fire may be the most blogged about band of the last two years, one could argue that TVOTR may be the......

A couple of quick, sweet notes: The girls at Sweet Tempered are busting out a new guitar-shaped cookie just in time for SXSW. Head over to Little City, Epoch Coffee Shop, or Farm to Market to purchase. Meanwhile, chocolate nerds rejoice. The Second Annual Chocolate Festival Gala and Auction benefiting the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure starts tonight and continues throughout the weekend . Get your greedy little hands messy during an......

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su Teatro,......

On Sunday, Austin Film Festival presents a free script reading of a comedy written by Anne Rapp, an Austinite, sometime Michener Center instructor, and Robert Altman collaborator whose previous credits include Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T and the Women. Her new project's called Double Wide, and a bunch of funny people, including Johnny Hardwick (King of the Hill), Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (Fletch and Fast Food Nation), and Matt Bearden (a Funniest Person in Austin winner),......

It's finally a little tiny bit cold outside, and to celebrate the semblance to Holiday weather, Texas Culinary Academy is hosting its 5th Annual Gingerbread House Competition & Open House this Saturday from noon to 3pm. The competition will feature entries from children to professionals. Conventional wisdom might tell us that gingerbread houses might possibly be a little square or boring, but the entrants in this contest kick it up a notch every year......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

When it comes to the supernatural, American are gullable. Here's why Vampires can't exist. Sexy is more popular than scary when it comes to Halloween Costumes. Though we feel that certain attempts to be sexy could be very very scary. Wal-Mart is shooting itself in the foot. We would have aimed higher. Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Ask a Paranormal Investigator. Still think you have a cool costume? We guess it......

Only one more week and I'll be waking up in Austin, ready to put on an entire bottle of sunscreen and head out to Zilker Park for my favorite music festival in the world. I know you guys may have thought I forgot about you - but I've been hard at work on my Austin City Limits Festival Preview Page, trying to wrap up the project before the festival actually starts. From today through......

*The views expressed in Bun in the Oven are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -The Editors Hot Tip! Before I delve into our favorite topic in the whole wide world, I want to put the word out that the Lauterstein-Conway Massage School is looking for second and third trimester pregnant women who'd like a free massage on Saturday, October 28. The school is having a pregnancy-massage workshop,......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it......

In honor of the World Cup-winning Italian futbol team, we’ve assembled our own team of Italian delicacies to be had right here on the third coast. Mangia! • Meatball Sandwich and Macarpone Cheesecake at Enoteca Vespaio This sandwich with crusty white bread, juicy and spicy meatballs, warm melted cheese and sweet tomato sauce provides a very intricate marriage of flavors for something so, well, simple. Pair with something from an obscenely large collection of......

In the north part of Austin's so-called Urban Core lies the intersection of Metric Boulevard, US-183, and MoPac. Now known collectively as the North Burnet/Gateway Planning Area, the roughly 2,300-acre section of land has grown considerably in the past few decades, from its origins as an industrial district and home of the UT Balcones Research Center (now J.J. Pickle Research Campus), built on a WWII-era magnesium plant, to the construction of various collosal highways......

You don't take care of your CDs very well. Your car—probably a mid-nineties Honda Civic with hit-or-miss air conditioning—is littered with albums, sans jewel cases. On this particular, hypothetical afternoon, you find that five discs have melted together whilst carelessly stacked in your center console: My Morning Jacket's Z, The Flaming Lips' Zaireeka, Broken Social Scene's Broken Social Scene, Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, and anything from any labeled band out of Athens, Georgia... ...

We don't like to pick on animals or children here at Austinist, because it just doesn't seem right. But...we saw a story today that kinda made us a little uncomfortable. The Statesman ran a story today about the Austin-area Girl Scout Cookie Queen, Round Rock's Shalee Hindes. The 12 year-old sold 4,500 boxes, shattering the previous record for cookie sales (3,658). The overly-enthusiastic Hindes' secret to success is simple. "You always have cookies with......

This is one of those weekends when were are so grateful to be living in Austin. Don't be surprised if we share this sentiment often. It's one of those weekends when there is so much to do, we feel really guilty for even thinking about staying inside. As usually is the case in Austin, the weather is going to be wonderful to be outside. Yeah, we're sleeping in the hammock tonight, after all of......

Okay! Time for a little break from all the SXSW zaniness! Let's talk about women, shall we? Did you know that March is National Women's History Month? One of our favorite women, the Vortex's fabulous fearless leader Bonnie Cullum, clued us in to this fact a few days ago. To honor the so-called gentler sex, Vortex has created a menu of tasty treats for the entire month. I Look Like An Egg, but I......

Quick, citizens of Austin, to the theatre! This weekend is your last chance to down to the jiggy beat of your favorite theatre company before all those self-important dicks with well-coppered tans come to town. Speaking of San Francisco, (and SXSW, and theatre), that brings us to our Austinist performance pick of the week. Heather Gold is coming all the way from Golden-Gate-Ville to perform at the Vortex on Monday and Tuesday night. Here’s......

Please let us know if we are missing your favorite blogs. We try to find new blogs each week, but we are going to have to go with our tried-and-true favorites also. Our favorite posts for the week: Lone Star Democracy Association reviews Bob Gammage (if you don’t know already, he's running for Governor). Rachel at A Day in the Life is planning her trip to Canada. The Sound of Crickets Chirping has two major......

We spend a fair amount of time considering our options for sweets. It's not the best way to spend our time, or the most kind to our hips, but nevertheless, sugar has always been a staple in our lives. One of our favorite sugar providers is that All American Tradition, the Milkshake. We never pass up a good shake, despite Dr. Atkins' suggestions. What exactly is required to make a good milkshake we can't......

* This post comes from Austinist guest contributor Chad Beck Emo’s generally has a healthy dose of heavy bands for those who like abrasive, eardrum-shattering, live music. It isn’t everyday, however, that Emo’s plays host to groups that intend on actually punishing the audience. Some Girls, who take Emo’s indoor stage around Midnight, Tuesday the 24th, are out to do just that. Their latest record, Heaven’s Pregnant Teens (out Tuesday on Epitaph), is about......

The idea is simple and the product divine, Tiff's Treats takes a cookie and makes it a scrumptious event. Leon Chen and Tiffany Taylor were college students at the University of Texas when they decided that they could parlay their cookie baking skills into a new business. Operated as a sideline venture, the pair soon graduated and expanded the operation to full time in June 2001. If you have yet to try Tiff's Treats......

Cinephiles rejoice! The Austin Film Festival kicks off this Thursday, featuring a bevy of shorts, documentaries, advance screenings and parties! Of course, the festival is not just about watching movies; it’s also a fantastic opportunity for you wannabe filmmakers to hear from a slew of panelists about the craft of filmmaking and the industry in general. Among the distinguished panelists at the screenwriters’ conference are Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin, Freaks and Geeks, The Larry......

Tonight is your very. last. chance. to catch Viva Les Amis** at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown. At least for the foreseeable future. Viva Les Amis, in case you've been orange alerting it in your underground bunker these past few months, is a documentary of one of Austin's most cherished institutions - the Les Amis Café - that for three decades bore witness to the restless transmogrification of our gentle urban folk, from 70s freewheeling......

Laura Cantrell – Humming by the Flowered Vine More pop oriented effort from this country singer-songwriter that delivers an album full of quality (heartbreaking) songs. Billy Corgan – The Future Embrace It’s been a couple of years since Corgan’s disaster known as Zwan disgraced his musical pedigree. But he somehow managed to pick himself up and deliver..well no this isn’t top shelf quality Pumpkins work by any means but it will satisfy those Pumpkin......

We know we are lucky living in this beautiful town, not being attacked by birds, and having so many fun things to do any given night of the week, but today this Austinist felt particularly fortunate. Our boss bought us cookies! Not just any cookies, they were delivered from the fabulous Tiffany’s Treats. We got Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, and the biggest brownies we’ve ever attempted to eat, all brought to our little office,......

Next Tuesday, April 19th, Ben and Jerry’s is giving away free cones from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. The location at 6th and Lamar and the S. Capitol of Texas Highway store will be handing out the goods. The Austinist wonders if Ben and Jerry will be the next people to be accused of contributing to the childhood and adult obesity "epidemic" that’s sweeping the nation. All we’re saying is that if Cookie Monster has......

Ever noticed how 96.8% percent of songs you hear on the radio all sound alike? It's like there's one guy sitting around writing "hits" for whoever is popular at the moment. Cookie-cutter songs from one-hit wonders. The Austinist demands to know where have all the real musicians gone? Enter avant-rock supergroup Fantomas. At the forefront of this sonic attack force is Mike Patton, he of Faith No More/Mr. Bungle/Loveage fame. Surrounded by an amazing supporting......